Shanna Rose | WV Sports Chat
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -West Virginia’s season-opening 91-46 win over Niagara did not start quite how the Mountaineers envisioned it would. After falling behind early, WVU found its rhythm by leaning into what could become the team’s identity: athleticism, defensive pressure, and speed.
“We’re one of the more athletic teams and when we do press like that, we’re going to cause teams to turn it over and we’re going to be ready to run out and we have a lot of athletes that are going to dunk the basketball,” freshman guard Miles Sadler said.
When the Mountaineers increased their defensive pressure as the game went on, it forced the Purple Eagles to speed up their game, which created opportunities in transition.
When things were not going WVU’s way early on, head coach Ross Hodge made adjustments, and the change in intensity helped his team shake out of its early funk.
“And made some minor adjustments with our ball screen coverages, tried to be a little more aggressive and again I think the strength of this team will be the numbers and then when you combine that with the ability like we’ve talked about it, Amadou (Seini)and Mo (Sylla), thohse guys can move and you should be able to wear some other teams down,” Hodge said. “But I thought that in itself gotk us more aggressive, got us off our heels a little bit. We were able to start getting deflections, long rebounds. Miles (Sadler) got out in transition, got some easy baskets, and we kind of got us going.”
For junior guard Martin Somerville, he recognized what the Mountaineers needed and was prepared to come off the bench and deliver.
“I always like to bring something different or I mean, you start off on the bench, you kind of see what you guys need, coming in,” Somerville said. “So, I felt like we needed some defensive intensity a little bit just to speed up the guys and speed up the other team and yeah, so I brought it. It worked out.”
Hodge credited Somerville and the other bench players with helping flip the momentum for WVU.
“Again using those minutes to kind of get a feel for what’s happening out there and what you need to interject into the game,” Hodge said. “And again, Martin is a mature player and he communicates well. And so that again, that was a very mature response from him. And again, I thought it was him and Joson (Sanon) and Jav (Javan Buchanan) and they just were able to just crank up the intensity level just a little bit.”
The team’s athleticism is effective when the game opens up.
“I think like Miles said, our team is wired around athleticism, speed, so I think whenever we get the ball in transition on a broken floor, I think it just gives us the best opportunity,” senior forward Brenen Lorient said.
That combination of speed and transition opportunities is something Hodge believes can become a strength for his team going forward.
“I definitely think a strength of this team will be the speed and being able to convert defense to offense should be a strength with our forwards that can run and then the shooting that’s on the perimeter,” Hodge said.
The Mountaineers made offensive adjustments after taking several 3-pointers early in the game. Instead of putting shots up, they began to focus more on getting into the paint and attacking the offensive glass.
“I feel like it was definitely time to impose our will in the paint offensively and again, we had to crash the offensive glass and that’s why we started getting to the basket more often and that’s what caused our lead to grow,” Sadler said.
For a team still learning to play together, the opener provided an early test and Hodge was pleased with the way his team responded despite a rough start.
“I thought early we didn’t make them miss,” he said. “You know, there’s a difference between making someone miss and hoping someone misses. We were a little short on our closeouts. And then I did like again the response. We haven’t played a lot of basketball together, but again, Martin, Finley (Bizjack), Seydou (Traore), Brennan (Lorient), Javan, those guys have played a lot of college basketball. I didn’t feel like there was any panic kind of with the start.”
As the season continues, WVU’s ability to use its depth, defensive intensity and athleticism to wear down opponents could help define the way the Mountaineers play.
“I think the strength of this team will be the numbers,” Hodge said.
WVU’s next game is against Stetson on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Hope Coliseum.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
